Newspoll: 56-44

The Australian reports that Labor’s lead in this fortnight’s Newspoll is down slightly from 57-43 to 56-44. Kevin Rudd is down three points as preferred leader to 65 per cent while Brendan Nelson is up two to 14 per cent.

The latest weekly Essential Research survey shows no change in Labor’s long-standing 58-42 lead. Also featured is a national-level question on state voting intention which suggests collective primary vote support for the state Labor governments is 7 per cent lower than for federal Labor (40 per cent compared with 47 per cent), although Coalition support is only 3 per cent higher (38 per cent compared with 35 per cent). Further questions involve federal Labor’s performance on various individual issues, and attitudes to the balance of power in the Senate.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

745 comments on “Newspoll: 56-44”

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  1. Ron @ 589

    I’m not quite sure what you’re getting at here. At no point did I ever say that Obama was a better candidate than Clinton (merely that he won the primary contest legitimately and fair and square), but if you want to read that much into what I wrote previously, then that’s your choice.

    If you read back through what I’ve said, you’ll note that all I wrote was that instead of getting all riled up about your preferred candidate not getting through, just let it go and help to ensure that the Democrats do get elected in November (which is what everyone else is doing now, even the Clintons themselves). But again if you want to read something into it that’s simply not there, then that’s up to you. I just request that you do not categorize me and involve me in the whole ‘us vs them’ scenario you’ve got happening here 🙂

  2. Gary

    Howard did worse on Serf Choices, health, education, honesty, weaselness, climate change and the Iraq War. He was level with Rudd on national security. He only won on the economy. It was pretty close 53-47 in the end. His “economic management” routine carried him a mile.

  3. GB @ 597,

    Loaded question, self selecting sample, using a medium dominated by Obama and team throughout this campaign. I am not convinced. As I said, I will see how she performs before making any judgements.

    And, BTW this quote from your link is interesting.

    “They do not even bother to mention any emails they got in support of Palin as a choice. I am sure they got a couple! That is unfortunate because regardless of how the critics see it, I think Palin is a great choice. As Governor of Alaska, Palin will help McCain get the upper edge on offshore drilling as an issue. Palin also helps McCain as a pro-life female candidate that has a child with Down Syndrome and another child enlisted in the military. Palin is ideologically sound with most small government, low tax Republicans that has been able to decouple herself from the failed policies of the federal government by being at the state level”.

  4. Gary,

    Work Choices won the election for Labor.

    However, Rudd spent considerable time and effort re-inforcing his credentials as an “economic conservative”. He managed to convince the electorate he was a safe change they could make.

  5. GG

    Like to know basis of how USA economy will be run , perhaps what people holding econamic positions actualy say is best answer

    Jason Furman already appointed as th Future Administration Obama Economic Team Head & Walmart director said in 2007 when Wal Mart workers were pressuring to increase there paltry $7 an hour wage , “Wal-Mart’s critics are the real threat: the ‘efforts to get Wal-Mart to raise its wages and benefits are creating ‘collateral damage’ that is “way too enormous and damaging to working people and the economy … for me to sit by idly and sing Kum Ba Ya in the interests of progressive harmony”.

    Spoken like a reel Chief executive being Anti Union , that ESJ would be proud of

    Austan Goolsbee Campaign Chief Economic Advisor wrote March 2007, he published an article in The New York Times pointing out the virtues of subprime mortgages , quote “The three decades from 1970 to 2000 witnessed an incredible flowering of new types of home loans,” Goolsbee wrote. “These innovations mainly served to give people power to make their own decisions about housing, and they ended up being quite sensible with their newfound access to capital.”

    Spoken like a reel laissez faire capitalist , having no idea of sub prime dangers melt down , but a “unregulated market ” capitalist’s ideas that ESJ would be proud of
    .
    McCain’s advisors ar just as bad

    As for Candidates , think gough knew more about econamics than them or most candidates , so ‘oz’ may be on our own economicaly big time

  6. OzFrog 601

    I just request that you [Ron] do not categorize me and involve me in the whole ‘us vs them’ scenario you’ve got happening here

    Good luck. Don’t hold your breath.

  7. Diogenes,

    You were thinking of me when they took that happy snap of you?

    I would have been thinking about the lady.

  8. OzFrog

    #601

    You came on here today on #583 and made false allegations about at least 2 other posters (not me as I was not even logged on) Your blog was santimonious , untruthful and in political statistcally on electability terms grossly incorrect

    YOU INITIATED that false unsubstantiated abuse , seeng no other poster before you had done so

    Just Me then lamely folowed you in #585

    Records of todays blogs show this I simply was telling you so , and for me in quite gentle terms , so as like I said to Just Me , grow up , however as my criticism of th phoney whose a “protectionist” adversely affecting KEVIN RUDD’s Govt , our economy & our farmers & exporters , just get used to it

  9. This new gal seems to be a rootin’ tootin’ high falootin’ straight shooting fronteerswoman. 5 kids, shops at local supermarket with common folk, her and hubbie have both been union members (hubbie still is)
    Sorta stuff that Hillary’s dirt farmers and factory workers who hate Obama’s guts could relate to aye?
    Maybe the old grey haired coot with the chicken arms ain’t so silly afterall.

  10. “Howard did worse on Serf Choices, health, education, honesty, weaselness, climate change and the Iraq War. He was level with Rudd on national security. He only won on the economy. It was pretty close 53-47 in the end. His “economic management” routine carried him a mile.”
    I’m not getting my point across am I? Because a person is perceived to be better at the economy doesn’t mean they will go along way to winning an election. Other factors are involved. The same with McCain and Obama.
    What you have just said above makes my point doesn’t it?
    As for your comment on the 53 – 47 what do you think the result would be if that happens next election? The fact was Labor came from 16 seats down and gained heaps.

  11. Ron @ 609

    Have I missed something here? Reading back through my posts, I see no occurrence of abuse or sanctimonious behaviour in anything I wrote. If anything, I was being quite objective about the whole thing (and I always strive to be objective in anything I write on here).

    Again, as was the case beforehand, something has been read into my posts that I simply did not write. And so far (as of time of writing) you are the only person who has raised these concerns, but I cannot respond to these concerns until it has been conclusively pointed out where exactly I did as you have claimed, because there is no parity between what I have written and what you have read.

  12. Vera #610

    very well said as usual , your reasons ar I suspect is why McCain picked her ..PLUS

    “Palin was elected governor in late 2006 AFTER defeating INCUMBENT governor Frank Murkowski in the Republican primary and FORMER Democratic governor Tony Knowles in the general election.”

    This lady has ‘ticker’ , is young & obviously , has no assocaition with Washington politics ‘pork barrelling’ , anti abortion & before her 5th child whilst active as governor ! , knew inadvance her child HAD “down syndrome”)

    not sure of all her politcal stands but being a Repug is a minus but to be fair will look at her ‘history’ there , don’t like GW at all , and re offshore drilling would want to see some environmental stuff as we drill of WA ok but would not do so on barrier Reef, but politcally she has alot going for her as you said Vera

    McCain is behind , other options were dunces politcaly , so he”s had to take a risk , a huge gamble on her inexperience despite her above qualities she brings , Media will be ruthless at her no doubt and if she fails there or in debates th McCain gamble will not work , but when behind hav a go Time will tell

  13. 612 OzFrog – I’m a fan of Ron and agree with most of what he says about Australian politics but in this I must say I agree with you. Having read what Ron had to say I decided to check out your posts again, I thought I must have missed something but I can’t find what Ron is accusing you of anywhere.

  14. New Orleans is looking at the barrel of another hurricane and is beginning evacuations. It’s due to hit New Orleans on Tuesday. Bush has declared a state of emergency. And Condi is looking for a Ferragamo shop for some more shoes (OK I lied about the last one).

    New Orleans residents start leaving
    http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,24266526-5006301,00.html

    GG

    Just a little off topic but are Carlton going to play through the Big Fev to get the ton this evening?

  15. Diogenes,

    Leaving right now for the game. Carlton are primed and both sides have undersized backlines. Every chane that Fev and Franklin will get their 100s tonight.

    Go Blues!

  16. [Palin was elected governor in late 2006 AFTER defeating INCUMBENT governor Frank Murkowski in the Republican primary and FORMER Democratic governor Tony Knowles in the general election.]

    I’m not sure beating the incumbent was all that much of an achievement… he ran last in the Republican race as he was a bit of a screw up in his single term. The Democrat candidate however was actually a former governor who tried running again after a term’s hiatus (due to successive term limits). Seems there was a bit of a history there.

  17. OzFrog
    You came onto this site today #383 (before I was even logged in) and falsely based accused at least 2 other posters of quote “sour grapes” which is false but you had no evidence , of quote “being all riled up as there candidate lost” which is falsely based but you had no evidence , of quote “having animosity to a candidate” which is falsely based but you had no evidence , ALL of which you INITIATED without warning , and ALL of which were directed personally at posters here , RATHER than making issues blogs

    Fact is those posters had psephologically sound reasons for there decisions & comments , for which personal feelings were not even a remote factor whatsoever , I know this from 4 months of debate with them so your comments were falsely based here , Language used re Obama is simillar to similar comments people make against Cossie & Howard ie. policy & ‘history’ based , not personal anger based , so your whole personal based ‘animosity’ & ‘all riled up’ and ‘sour grapes’ blog was not only persoanly based but was totally inaccurate

    When I challenged you , you then REPEATED th same falsely based allegations personally directed AT ME

    You can not now claim retrospectively you did not initiate this as posts demonstrate that , nor can you now claim retrospectively your comments were not personally directed at posters , RATHER than making issues blogs

    Your comments did not affect me at all , except dispationately I was not going to allow such falsely based statementts to go unchallenged

    Fact is I hav OVER 1,000 pages of data on both candidates Obama & McCain , most of it adverse & a lot sleezy read my #171 post , and dispationately I believe both Partys made poor decisions electing poor candidates (one Obama a phoney whose majority ‘supporters’ support’ is based on oratory & not researrch ) and th other McCain (a maverick whose only advantage over Obama is his ‘record’ is more transparent but that ‘record’ is still unsatisfactory)

    So I hav a welter of well soursed info to form an objective decision as per above which is substantial , for which I hav made a cold dispationate decision base on So actually as declared here previously for reasons above & on below policys , I’d be voting informal

    Only political fools retain emotion for reasons of objecting to any candidate at any time , beit Obama or Howard or McCain

    SO YOUR ASSERTION I have either “ar riled up” OR “hav animosity” or hav “sour grapes” is false IF however you wish to think that , then thats quite ok by me

    As to comparative electability every psephological stat did not favour Obama and by a huge margin vs Clinton , but that is totally and completely no longer relevant its history , except I note simply your comment was ill judged

    Further , apart from there ‘history’ as an example neither candidate supports ratifying Kyoto , neither candidates health policy would get approved by th Labor Party at all they’d dustbin both , and in Obama’s case he’s a firm ‘protectionist’ thereby hurting ‘oz’ farmers & exporters , whilst with CC both hurt our CC reduction efforts

    Accordingly , your comments per first paragragh were totally inaccurate and were driven either by non site distractions , disingenuous or not being aware of above data , and th cake will be in th eating thereof

  18. Ron
    I can’t stand Bush either and want a Democrat president, BUT not the Slippery One. If I was a Yank I wouldn’t be voting at all.
    As for Palin I did a google and came up with this

    http://gov.state.ak.us/bio.html
    “Under her leadership, Alaska invested $5 billion in state savings, overhauled education funding, and implemented the Senior Benefits Program that provides support for low-income older Alaskans. She created Alaska’s Petroleum Systems Integrity Office to provide oversight and maintenance of oil and gas equipment, facilities and infrastructure, and the Climate Change Subcabinet to prepare a climate change strategy for Alaska.”

    Word is that women won’t vote for her as she’s Pro-Life, but those younger liberal women would be rusted on Democrat voters anyway wouldn’t they? I bet she’ll attract a few older chooks who find other things more important.

  19. Ron.

    Get over it, Obama will win comfortably. You should spend your time getting a keyboard with an “e” key, rather than the crud you spout re an election in a foriegn country.

    I converse with over 2,000 Americans weekly on my blood cancer support site, the overwhelming opinion is that McCain is Toast. 😛

  20. Ron @ 618

    The reason I directed my post at you earlier is because you brought my name up in a post directed at Just Me essentially accusing me of something that I did not do (and I still maintain that I have not done so). And also, when you say I have accused at least 2 other posters originally, I looked back at my original post, and I saw that i did not name any names at all. So how you could have come up with *2* names is beyond me.

    And again, I fail to see how any of what I have written in my past posts amounts to any sort of abuse or sanctimonious behaviour (and your post just then still fails to highlight any of these occurrences). In fact, at least one other poster here today has concurred along these lines as well.

    You have made no secret of your preference for Hillary Clinton, and I totally respect that. Personally, I think both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are strong candidates. But again I make the request (as I have made previously to you) that you do not categorise me as a Hillary hater or Obama supporter or anything like that where it is unwarranted (like in this instance for example). If you must categorise me as anything, then be it a Democrat supporter.

    Psephology is a very advanced science, and I come on to Pollbludger because I love to read about and learn about it. But like everything else in this world, psephology can be wrong in some instances. And that’s what makes it so fascinating.

    If all the pseph stats relating to the Democrat primaries were all correct as you claim, then it wouldn’t be Barack Obama we’d be seeing today as the Democrat Nominee. Alas though, the polls were wrong in this instance and Obama is our Nominee. Let’s just live with that and make sure the Democrats get into office in November.

  21. [McCain and Palin could now make claim to being aware of what’s going on outside Washington]

    Given how far outside Washington Alaska is, I’m guessing they’ll be keeping quiet on that one…

  22. The Finnigans @ 586 –

    Putin was accusing the Bush adminstration of engineering the georgia affair in order to help McCain POTUS election.

    I believe Putin has a point, thought it wasn’t Bush pulling the stings, but McCain, possibly with more than a little help from Cheney. According to McCain, he and Saakashvili have known each other for nearly 25 years. It’s probably also no coincidence that one of McCain’s advisers, Randy Scheunemann, was (is?) a Georgia lobbyist.

    They probably thought it was an opportunity to show off McCain’s foreign policy ‘smarts/balls’ but they didn’t count on how much has changed in Russia since Bush’s stupidity quadrupled the price of oil.

    Which is not to deny that Putin has been playing his own games with Georgia for political gain.

    However, IMHO, the real lesson from all this is that being McCain’s buddy is a very, very unhealthy thing to be.

  23. OzFrog

    #601 addressed to Ron
    “If you read back through what I’ve said, you’ll note that all I wrote was that instead “of getting all riled up” about your preferred candidate not getting through”

    This statement is falsely based I explained why in great detail in my post #618
    You hav since chosen in reply to ignore that #618 post , and retain your falsely based view , so beit , no skin off me

  24. On The Simpsons the other day, Homer was offered a free flight to any destination in the US “except for Alaska or Hawaii, the freak states, we don’t count them”.

    Given that it’s barely part of the US and only has 650,000 inhabitants, I’d be interested to find out how “real” Americans view Alaskans. It might analogous to having an Aussie PM from Norfolk Island or the Australian Antarctic Territory.

  25. Vera

    #619

    “Ron
    I can’t stand Bush either and want a Democrat president, BUT not the Slippery One. If I was a Yank I would NOT be voting at all.”

    Ditto with me Vera , you’re obviously a lady who does not like phoniness or bullsh.t either , good on you

    thanks for background on Palin , shows she has sound adminstrative crdentials
    in her governor role

    ps/ regarding pro life , Obama is even more pro life , voted against a Bill on a tecnicality where a baby born resulting from an abortion (who was deemed ‘viable’ on basis) that that should not receive full medical support , fortunately th Bill got passed

    Suffice to say as you’d expect that a similar Bill was also passed overwhelmingly by US Congress , so pro life is not her probelm , more re inexperience facing media & debates

  26. Hey, this Palin is a good (hot) sort. The only dead-set reason McCain picked her was because he wanted to win the female vote from those cheesed off that Obama gave Hillary the flick.

    Poor McCain the fool. Women are not going to vote for Palin. He should have been watching Big Brother over here in Australia. The good lookin’ women are always the first to get evicted because of their looks LOL.

  27. Ron @ 628

    Hillary is your preferred candidate, yes? Again I respect that. And yet the fact that you and others on here continue to cast negativity about Obama (even after Clinton herself endorsed Obama and got behind him) isn’t doing anyone any favours here (especially with comments like “his oilyness” or “his smugness”, which makes one come across at this stage of the Presidential race like a Republican supporter rather than a Democrat). You must agree in this instance that when those comments are made, they are assertions being made about that person which may or may not be true, which is exactly what you have accused me of doing.

    And contrary to your assertion that I “ignored” your 618 post, I did in fact reply to it in 622, yes? My original comment (and the original point of my post to begin with) was that whatever happened in the primaries, it needs to be put away and the real contest can then begin.

    We can go around in circles about this until the cows come home. But at the end of the day, I stand by what I have said, and it is obvious that some people are stuck in the past and cannot move forward, which is a shame, and makes it very difficult at best to have a rational conversation on this topic. And also when it comes to being stamped with labels that simply aren’t true, it does call into question the character and reputation of this site. Hence why I wont say any more on this topic at this stage.

  28. Apparently (from what I’ve heard), Obama supporters are rallying the streets with Obama 08 t-shirts shouting “Obama 08″… Shades of Kevin 07.

    I saw Obama’s acceptance speech yesterday. It was a beauty. His policies are similar to Rudd’s. Let’s hope we get the Big Double up, K07 & O08 and stick it right up the neo conservatives.

  29. Don’t be mislead into thinking Obama is a weak leader. If serious problems developed between Russia and the US, Obama will not be joining hands singing Kumbiyah I will give you the tip.

    He could make Putin sh!t himself and as for McCain, he would make him wet his pants in a nursing home.

  30. Speaking of Putin and war. The rest of the world, including Russia, wants Obama to win. They know that the world would be a safer place with Obama as President instead of a warmongering republican conservative.

    This may sound silly, but I bet that the chances of a third world war would be substantially decreased with Obama as pres than McCain.

  31. Dio @ 629,
    Agree about Alaskans – I don’t think “normal” Americans would relate to them much.
    But I don’t think Obama and Biden should go for Palin’s jugular – not at first, anyway.
    If she’s a female Dan Quayle that will become obvious soon enough. And, on the other hand, if she actually can talk the talk, well the Dems will look silly if they’ve told everyone she’s a complete moron. Better to give her some rope (probably for a couple of weeks, at least till the end of the Republican Convention) and see what she does with it.

  32. Ron

    I think you’ve wasted enough of William’s bandwidth arguing against OzFrog on your perception of his comments on a topic which is irrelevant to the main theme of this thread.

  33. Dyno

    Obama and Biden agree with you. They have been very complimentary about Palin in their initial remarks and have even chastised their spokesman who ripped into her.

    “While we obviously have differences over how best to lead this country forward, Governor Palin is an admirable person and will add a compelling new voice to this campaign,” they said in a statement.

    Mr Obama told reporters that Mrs Palin had a “terrific” personal story and would help make a case for the Republicans, but added: “Unfortunately, the case is more of the same.”

    From what I’ve seen of her, she looks like a decent sort, and I don’t just mean her aesthetic attributes. She looks like an honest, decent, hard-working gal who has been a success beyond what she ever expected. She was proudly talking about her PTA days. My bull-shit detector barely got out of first gear. I expect she’ll be way out of her league though.

  34. OzFrog

    you hav all th earmarks of a Gilligans using different protocols here now , a Gilligans by th way uses falsely based & sneaky use of words to defend there phoney as do you do , seeing they & you lack facts

    They all belong in th looney faction of th Greens Party , full of intellegentsia dreamy snouts , you do fit in

  35. wbj

    #640

    mind your own business I hav no intention of putting up with cr.p from arrogant looney left faction of Greens Party OzFrog tried , and I responded For a site that has a clear timing record of sequence of blogs , your comment either shows laziness in not seeing he initiated it and/or you belong to th description in first paragraph , take your choice

  36. I notice that GG is a mad Carlton supporter. My favourite commercial is that Toyota ad where the guy goes up to Alex Jesalenco and goes; jesa-len-co, yo-byo-tay.

    In League, I want News Ltd owned teams (like Droncos & Storm) to get beat.
    Newcastle 17 def Storm 16.

    I can hear them in Newcastle; nu-ca-stle, nu-ca-stle.

    O.K. Back to politics. 🙂

  37. Ron, you need to get away from the dark side of the force and join good verses evil:

    a) Give the Droncos the flick because we can’t have News Ltd winning. And

    b) Forget about what was said in the past on Gilligans Island. C’mon, get on the Obama bandwaggon. 😉

  38. wbj

    #647

    still interfering I see , go back to Gilligans where you came from with your looney left faction of Greens Party , you did exactly as OzFrog did , initiated posts which is typical of th snouted intellegentsia set , no courage , all fluff , unlike Kevin07

  39. Hi Ron, grow up. I used to come here to see intelligent comment – even if I disagreed with the comment and I have never seen anyone feel so insecure about their opinions that they have to carry on like you. If people disagree with you – so what. Are you not mature enough to let it pass?

    Tom.

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